Each week, BIV staff will share with you some of the interesting stories we have found from around the web.

Kirk LaPointe, editor-in-chief:

I’m reading The Milkman, the originally structured (no characters, for instance) winner of the Man Booker Prize. This profile of Irish author Anna Burns and her physical struggle to write makes the book’s creation all that more astonishing. - The New York Times

Former Seattle Seahawks defensive star Michael Bennett, now with the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles, has taken up the mantle of leadership for social change in the NFL. His onfield aggression is a mask for his reflective, conscientious agency. - The New Yorker

Your apps know where you were last night, and they sell that data. Yes, it is generally anonymized. But this investigation reveals that data collection is often so precise that individuals can easily be identified by their routines, where they work, where they sleep. - The New York Times

With the 38th anniversary of John Lennon’s death on December 8, it was a good time to reflect on his life and to read this piece from 2010, when a longread about John’s last interview was first published. - Rolling Stone

Time magazine’s story accompanying its issue naming murdered and persecuted journalists as its ‘Person of the Year’ is an eloquent defence of facts in this era’s total war on truth. Excerpt:

“The old-school despot embraced censorship. The modern despot, finding that more difficult, foments mistrust of credible fact, thrives on the confusion loosed by social media and fashions the illusion of legitimacy from supplicants.” - Time

Sweden has just 1% of the world’s working forests, but provides 10% of the world market for lumber, pulp and paper and has doubled its forest assets over the last 100 years. How does Sweden do it? As B.C. tackles the problem of a shrinking timber supply, it would be worth looking at Sweden’s forestry management policies. - World Economic Forum

Google defies New Zealand publication ban and emails the name of an accused killer whose name is supposed to be protected by a court-ordered publication ban. All traditional media respected the ban, Google didn’t. - The Guardian

This Inverse story about the “deep biosphere” offers a fascinating look at a whole ecosystem deep underground that we are only beginning to understand. Bacteria and archaea can live deep underground and beneath the ocean floor, thriving on things like methane and hydrogen, and can live in extreme heat or cold for thousands of years. Is it possible that life did not evolve from organisms living in the ocean, rather rather from deep underground? - Inverse